Boat Diary

Part 10

The Next Days at Sea:

I had sweat so much that every time I went for rest, I just passed out. It was really tiring due to the constant work on deck that I even forgot to brush my teeth, lol. The boat was healing permanently at 45 degrees and Jeronimo pushed the crew and the boat hard. No more compromises, just the aiming for the bullet and gaining distance to the fleet. Due to the wind conditions we were all the time on a close-hauled course and the boat was just smashing against the waves and every time it felt like a shock wave going through the boat.

While we were rocking through the sea, a few crew members got sea sick and got out of order. To my surprise far less got sea sickness than I had expected, which was a good sign for the crew.

The life on the boat became very uncomfortable and challenging due to the hard healing and permanent bouncing and smashing through the waves. It felt like every movement was with several 'G-forces' and you had to be very careful not to lose balance or your grip to get injured. Going to the heads was the biggest challenge for me because even keeping your belongings into the toilets bowl was a challenge and while standing up or sitting down, you were just gliding up or down the wall with your whole body that you literally cleaned the walls with your t-shirt and pants. Those were the moments where you just swear all the time and asked yourself why you had signed-up for this. Lol, but as always, you get over these bad moments quickly because all this is compensated by the extraordinary moments you get to experience on the deck during sail. During the days it was warm and luckily even the water temperature was pleasant. As we pushed the boat so hard that most of the time the guard rail was completely under the water and the waves splashed over the deck. Some waves even found their way back to the cockpit and went over the helm - such refreshing moment for everyone. Lol!

Particular when we had any sail changes on the foredeck, it was shower time. Some decided to wear a dry suit and me just wearing waterproof shorts along with a jacket. Nevertheless, we all got equally wet and exhausted because when the boat is on a constant close-hauled at 20-30 knots of wind speed and that too against the waves, it’s a whole new game. You also notice it in the crew’s behaviour because everyone gets very silent for sometime, trying to just focus on finding a comfortable position and to accomplish the duty. Finding a comfortable position on my bunk was almost impossible to achieve and almost in every shift I couldn’t have a proper rest because I got the mid upper bunk where I was a bit scared to fall out first, and also due to the sea state, regardless of the bunk’s angle (up or down), I always felt the G-force acting on the body and felt to get pushed out of the bed. Last night was so bad that I strapped myself to the bunk. Last time when I strapped myself to the bunk, it was in the Southern Ocean, when we got the insane winds from the south of Antarctic’s.

Good news is that we also passed the scoring gate yesterday and we gained three points for us, and more importantly, got a morale boost for the whole crew. Yesterday, Will and I got on mother watch which was pretty tough for us because we both are star chefs, lol. Breakfast went easy and everybody was happy. Lunch was a horror where I really had to pull my inner calm. Everybody was so nice and thanked us for the nice food when we knew we could have done a better job. But come on, who got the brilliant idea to put two spoiled guys with no cooking experiences into the kitchen. Dinner luckily went smooth again and was, by far, the highlight of our creations, and we made it up again for the crew (because of an easy recipe). Thank God we made it, after which we cleaned up everything (another moment where you swear silently but constantly because the boat is bouncing up and down and you literally have no point to hold onto yourself). The positive thing about a mother watch is that when you are done, you have no further duties after dinner till the next morning.

I had a 9 hours break till the next watch and thought to read a book or to listen to some audiobook. Noe of this happened, lol! Rob woke me up after 9 hours of deep sleep and a great fulfilling rest. Before going to sleep I just strapped myself again to the bunk, after which I instantly passed out. I slept even in the uncomfortable healing position, which was most probably due to the poor rest and bad sleep since the last 4 days.

And now after two hours of helming in light winds, I was sitting on the deck in fresh clothes, under the sun and enjoying the moment. The temperature dropped a lot compared to yesterday and I again put my mid-layer salopette on. I personally prefer to wear a jacket instead of sweating all the time that may have come from living in Dubai for too long with all those long and hot summers. In the morning we also deployed a buoy which transmitted several pieces of information like temperature, current, sea state etc. for scientific research.

The region we are currently sailing in is no buoy and hence, a great opportunity to collect important and relevant data concerning the global warming. I also made a video of it which will be uploaded soon after the arrival. So friends, that’s it for now and please stay tuned for the upcoming adventure.